Sunday, May 3, 2009

This, from David Shulman, his account of yesterday's action at Um Safa:

Pogroms: it's something the Jews know about. I grew up on those stories—Cossack raids on the shtetl, the torture and killings and wanton destruction. My grandmother had a brother. They lived in Mikhalayev, in the Ukraine. One day the Cossacks came, and everyone panicked, and the seventeen-year-old brother tried to hide in a pond, and he drowned. She mourned that young death all her life; the dead don't age, and some wounds never heal.

And now it turns out—who would believe it?—that there are Jews who also know how to carry out pogroms. For the last ten days or so, settlers from Bat 'Ayin in the so-called Etzion Bloc have been paying violent daily visits to their Palestinian neighbors in Um Safa, perched high on the edge of the western ridge that overlooks the coastal plain all the way to the sea. A terrorist from Um Safa entered Bat 'Ayin two weeks ago, murdered a settler boy with an axe, and wounded another. The police caught him soon thereafter. But that hasn't stopped the Bat 'Ayin settlers from repeated rampages to wreak revenge on Um Safa. They've already killed four innocents, and another eleven or twelve have been wounded by gunfire. As if that weren't bad enough, the soldiers have apparently been making common cause with these settlers, opening fire readily at the villagers. Life in this most beautiful of the mountain villages has become a nightmare; not that it was easy before.

We get the emergency call around 5:00 after a long day that started off in Susya, in South Hebron. At first it looked as though we'd never get through the barriers and the roadblocks; like last week, we had police and army on our tail from the moment we left Jerusalem. Two full buses and several private cars headed south by the long route twisting over the dry hills. A grey, sultry day, summer approaching: in the endless battle in the wadis and terraces between green and brown, green seems to be losing ground. Every once in a while the soldiers would stop one of the cars and threaten to stop the buses. But, happily, by midday we had rendezvoused at Susya with a van of Palestinian activists from all over the West Bank. All in all, some 150 Combatants for Peace—former Israeli soldiers and Palestinian members of the armed resistance organizations who have given up all forms of violence—had come to meet each other and to see the reality of South Hebron.

13 comments:

They've already killed four innocents, and another eleven or twelve have been wounded by gunfire.This has happened since the murder of the boy in Bat Ayin? Can you provide any reference to these deaths, any links or news reports? This the first I've heard about it.

... and they promised him another $4000 if he'd make his home in one of the settlements in the territories ...Simply not true. My family also made aliyah with the assistance of Nefesh b'Nefesh, as did many of our friends, and nothing of that sort was ever mentioned, offered, discussed ... in fact, the grant was made before we even knew where we'd be living. He's mistaken, or you misheard him, or he's agitating. That never happened. (Oh, and it was one Rabbi, he used to live in Boca Raton not Miami, and he was one of the first olim to come to Israel with Nefesh b'Nefesh.)

"...Simply not true. My family also made aliyah with the assistance of Nefesh b'Nefesh, as did many of our friends, and nothing of that sort was ever mentioned, offered, discussed ... in fact, the grant was made before we even knew where we'd be living. He's mistaken, or you misheard him, or he's agitating. That never happened."

Ah. The old; "because it didn't happen to ME, it didn't happen, period" gambit. I don't know. Sounds perfectly logical to me. How else do you convince someone to move to a place filled with sand, camel shit, hostile natives, and overly pious nitwits, except by offering a considerable cash incentive. You say it didn't happen to you? To my mind, that says more about your perceived value to the cause or lack thereof, and less about the veracity of the statement.

How else do you convince someone to move to a place filled with sand, camel shit, hostile natives, and overly pious nitwits, except by offering a considerable cash incentive.Well, good to know you've got an open mind about this issue.

To your point: I live in Efrat, part of Gush Etzion. To borrow the language of the left briefly - a settlement.

In other words, if such cash incentives were available, we'd have got one. All the friends I referred to above also live either in Efrat, or in other towns in Gush Etzion. None of them got such incentives.

Lastly: Several Nefesh b'Nefesh staff live in Gush Etzion so, again, if such incentives existed they would have been mentioned.

This is not about having an open mind, since the issue really isn't open to discussion. Your position is no more relevant than my own. The settlements will be removed along with its inhabitants. Not because its right. Not because its wrong. Welcome to the land of Realpolitik, where political expediency is the order of the day. Look I wouldn't get to comfortable if I were you. As I've stated previously on this blog; When the choice comes down to being between America's continued largesse and good will (not to mention the F-35 Strike Fighter)and your continued residency in the Occupied Territories, which do you think the powers that be are going to choose? Oh and you can forget about American Jewish support. You kissed that goodbye when you decided to bring up the issue of "Who's A Jew?" when your boy BiBi was running the show the last time.

78% of American Jews voted for Mr. Obama. Most people thought it was the economy. Thats nonsense. Obama was the ticket out for any secular American Jew under the age of 50. Since you've been so busy trying to disenfranchise them as Jews, they decided to vote as Americans instead. Since the perception that Israel has become an obstacle toward good relations with our cousins, amongst a growing number of their countrymen, don't be suprised if more than a few secular Jews begin to see Israel as less of a friend and more of a hinderance.

"...I live in Efrat, part of Gush Etzion. To borrow the language of the left briefly - a settlement.

In other words, if such cash incentives were available, we'd have got one. All the friends I referred to above also live either in Efrat, or in other towns in Gush Etzion. None of them got such incentives.

Lastly: Several Nefesh b'Nefesh staff live in Gush Etzion so, again, if such incentives existed they would have been mentioned."

Since your evidence is more of an anecdotal nature rather than an empirical one, I have to assumne you have no EMPIRICAL evidence to support your claim that the events in question did not happen. Until you can, my supposition stands. You simply didn't warrant such an offer. I'm sure they'll be happy to take you. but why spend the money if you don't have to?

Andy-What you are seeing here is what happens when someones inherently irrational, contradictory value system finally comes unglued due to its brutal confrontation with reality. In this case, we are seeing the final collapse of what was called "Labor Zionism" or "Progressive Zionism". Labor Zionism was what we call in Hebrew "kilayim", a unnatural combination....a mixture of "progressive, universalist, Marxism/socialism" with Jewish nationalism. How can you combine "universalism" with "nationalism"? It worked for a while because the overwhelming shadow of the Holocaust made "progressive" Jews feel that the Jewish people needed protection, in their own state. And so when this state was created, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were uprooted from their homes (justifiably so, as I see it since they started the war and promised to eradicate the Jewish Yishuv). Thus, as the "progressives" see it, this Jewish state came about at the expense of someone else. At first, the "progressives" justified it in their minds by saying that the Arabs were allies with Nazi Germany (which is partly true), or that their leaders told them to flee (which is also partly true), but as time wore on and as Israel took control of Judea/Samaria/Gaza in 1967, these arguments lost their hold on the "progressives". The "progressive" Labor Zionist is hearing over and over the accusation today that HE is a racist, he is a "tribalist". The modern non-Jewish "progressive" doesn't know much about the Holocaust, he sees the Palestinians. So what can the "progressive Zionist" do? One answer is "transfer of guilt". That is what we are seeing in this posting. He puts the blame on the "settlers" in Judea/Samaria. Interestingly enough, UNLIKE the "progressives" at places like the Hebrew Univesity and Tel Aviv University, the settlements in Judea/Samaria were almost exclusively built on unclaimed state lands or land bought by Jews (yes, there are some disputes which are being dealt with in the court system), whereas the Givat Ram campus of Hebrew U and Tel Aviv U are built on what was PRIVATELY owned Arab land. In Jerusalem it belonged to the village of Sheih Badr and in Ramat Aviv it was the Arab village of Sheikh Munis. Where are the Arabs who owned that land? Sitting in some refugee camp in Gaza or some other place? They certainly weren't paid for it. And where do many of the well-to-do "progressives" like those who wrote these posting live? In Jerusalem, it is the German Colony, again, privately owned Arab land whose owners fled or were forced out during the 1948 War of Independence. The irony is that Dr Avishai, if he made officially made aliyah, like all other olim, was given CASH PAYMENTS (the rights given to olim) to come live in Israel possibly on top of what was privately owned Arab land! In other words, these "progressives" have done all the things that they are accusing the settlers of. Add to this the extra distress caused by the fact that the government THEY supported, the Olmert/Livni Kadima government that did not include any "right-wingers" or "settlers", made TWO wars in THREE years, leading to many Arab and Jewish deaths...a government that made war while saying how much it was committed to peace (recall Dr Avishai's posting in which he told how Olmert came to him at a party and told him in great emotion that he know realizes he was wrong his entire life in supporting the Likud and its policies and he would be the one to make peace).Another example is that of "progressive Zionist" writer A B Yehoshua. He wrote a piece in Ha'aretz supporting the recent war in Gaza. He started by saying that terrorism against settlers, while, unfortunate, is somehow "understandable" because the Arabs in Gaza are living in poor conditions and they see prosperous settlements next to them, and they feel rage. However, Yehoshua then says that while that terror is "understandable", the rocket attacks on Israel, across the Green Line are not. I ask him, "why not". Just as the Gazans have eyes to see the settlements next to their towns and refugee camps (and these settlements were ALL built on empty sand dunes in regions never developed), they also can turn their eyes towards Sederot, or further to Ashdod and Ashqelon (which were Arab towns before 1948) and see land that THEY owned, that THEY worked and which are now occupied by Kibbutzim, which happen to be members of the same "progressive" political movements that Yehoshua himself belongs to. Is Yehoshua politically myopic? Or is he simply a hypocrite?

Thus, it is all the factors stemming from the bankruptcy of the "progressive" Labor Zionist ideology that has brought some of its followers to expressing their rage at someone else, in order to remove the burden of guilt from themselves. And if making up facts like non-existent murders helps stir things up, so much the better, as they see it. I feel pity for them.

I love the way everyone loves to project their insecurities and psychosis onto me. Your comments didn't upset me, but apparently my remarks irked you enough to engage your imagination and make a foray in to the world of creative writing. You can thank me later.

"..I was curious about you, so looked around on Google for other stuff you've written."

"the settlements in Judea/Samaria were almost exclusively built on unclaimed state lands or land bought by Jews"Actually, at least a third of that land was taken by Israel under pretext of security, and then simply handed over to settlers, according to the Civil Administration.

Presumably it's all justified if the Arabs were threatening the Yishuv again.

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